But for the entertainment of those who have followed the ADU threads, let me treat you with updates:

1 - Initially teachers were informed that they would have 3 weeks winter break. It is common for universities to have a 2 week winter break in between semesters - sometimes these 2 weeks extending into 3 weeks by adding on religious holidays.

ADU forgot that there was something called the Holy Month of Ramadan, and so, when Ramadan came along, Muthan and Sami Anwar had to muddle the teaching schedule 3 times before finally agreeing on some teaching time during this holy month. That meant that students often had to travel 40/45 minutes for a 30 minute class.

Hence, the winter break had to be shortened.

2 - The winter break between semesters was to be 2 weeks. Again, this was blundered by Muthana and Sami Anwar. In reality, teachers had the couple of days of Eid and then 1 week. As Eid did not cover 1 entire working week, teachers then had to work on the first Thursday of their working week after the winter break.

In reality, teachers were given 1 week winter break between semesters.

3 - During that first week after the break, teachers had to sit in their cubicles and advise students on which course to take. Teachers were not informed as to courses on offer, on which credit hours were needed - in other words, teachers had NO clue what exactly they were supposed to advise the students about, seeing that they (teachers) had been given NO information but orders to sit in cubicle and advise students.

After 1 week of the blind leading the blind, Owen Cargol came up with the brilhant idea of making teachers attend a workshop on how to advise students - AFTER the week was over and when teachers were no longer advising students.

In a nutshell: 1 week of not knowing what was to be done and then, on Thursday (usually a weekend), teachers were required to sit through a workshop that was totally useless in terms of acheiving objectives as they had already been working through 1 whole week with no instructions nor information as to what to advise the students about.

Knee-jerk reaction? Retarded planning?

Nope. Management and planning a la ADU style.

4 - For anyone still considering joining this warehouse, another brief note: Sami Anwar is no longer the Language Institute director, but did not leave without further mis-management: seeing that all the well trained professionals did not have the minimum of working conditions to be coordinators, they resigned. The person who was put in charge is a young, inexperienced, untrained teacher, who not having sufficient experience nor training, can merely repeat what she sees in floating handouts from occassional attendance at TESOL-Arabia. It is like being taught the alphabet from scratch - when you know how to actually write the dictionary.

The reign of incompetence continues in great flare at ADU.

Lastly, as if all which has occured at this so called "university" hasn't been sufficient, teachers who have had their contracts cancelled at now being threatened in the most insulting and demeaning ways. ADU refuses to pay what they owe - working hours included - and continues abusing academic professionals.

Does one still beleive that "justice" is a concept related to the scandalous warehouse of Abu Dhabi?

I agree with you - there cannot be any "justice" for those professionals who have been mistreated. Not with the current management team.

The purpose of this thread was to encourage other people who have encountered the ADU brutality to publish their experiences. (Particularly with the confirmed sexual predator president, "Dr" Owen and the mentally unbalanced Iraqi VP, "Muthanna"). Why the owners retain these people at the expense of professional staff is beyond me.

I think the university could still be an exciting place to work with the right management. The hope of all those who remain at ADU is that a management purge (crucial to the university's survival) will take place. Of course, the owner's may prefer the "warehouse" model, administered by a despotic Sadam Hussein sympathizer and propped up by a queen-president.

See Saffron's thread : "ADU University Warning" for confirmation of the president's nefarious professional life in the US.

I admit that I was a bit hasty in replying - Justice_Seeker's initial poster (and second) make absolute sense.

Nevertheless, I also need to add, that an institution cannot survive solely on the good-will of the employees. And that is what we teachers are - employees who deliver a service which societies need and not always are prepared to pay for. (let's not even get into the lip-service that politicians world over give out when it concerns education and health - both are "cool" are for voters but politicians seldom deliver)

As for ADU being able to still become an "interesting project" - let me remind colleagues of the following (minor?) points:

1 - ADU located in Abu Dhabi is the ex-warehouse of The One (a furniture outlet).

2 - ADU has NO educational facilities either for students nor staff.

3 - People cannot be forced to work in the dark, dungeon like rooms that ADU offers as "offices" and "classrooms" (please note, there are only a couple of classrooms which actually do have windows and overlook the highway)

4 - People of both genders are entitled to decent washrooms - and if not "decent" (i.e. clean, and where there is actual running water where it belongs and not on the floor) - at least, to a washroom of their gender. As I have said before, ADU did not have washrooms for the female staff - who now have to share with students and other personnel still employed there.

5 - An educational institution cannot promise facilities like computer labs and libraries to students and then NOT deliver - everything which ADU has published exists only in virtual reality or brochures which portray other possible educational centres. Certainly NOT ADU.

6 - After this disaster that ADU is known for - not only in Abu Dhabi but among the local population in many places of the Gulf - how is it going to lure students? Many have not returned - and one wonders if there will be any students at all next academic year.

7 - The few students who linger in the ghostly warehouse of ADU are students who have been refused at all other instiutions or keep their parents and families well in the dark as to the true "quality" of ADU - thus maintaining the formula of "I pay, therefore I pass". A formula well supported by Sami Anwar and his crew of imbeciles.

8 - There also have been many public complaints in the Arabic newspapers - students and parents writing about the appalling rip-off that ADU is.

ADU has to thank it's Dr Muthana, Sami Anwar and their faithful "odie" Mohamed Sheik (the human resource manager who carries out all lies and threats)

Will this place ever truly become a place of study instead of the random, monstrous incompetency it is now? Perhaps. There is more than sufficient money in the background for it to succeed - one day in a far distant future. Perhaps.

Saffron

PS
May colleageus please understand that this warehouse is unique - there is no other place as hideous as this one in the Gulf. DO Beware of any place that may have any contact or interference from Sami Anwar - both these characters - Sami Anwar and "Dr" Muthana - will certainly spell disaster in both your professional and personal lives.

Well as I have said before. Sounds like a NEW University. A really horrible one...but alas it exists and the government has probably given hundreds of thousands if not millions of UAE Dinars $ toward the organizers.

This also sounds like a truly horrible place like a couple of new Unis in Oman.....hahaha...wonder if the SHIEKs chat online to one another and tell each other just how much abuse teachers will accept.

I imagine conversations go something like this:

Recruit teachers from places like South Africa, India and Australian where
there is no opportunity to make as much money as they can in the GULF. Enlist teachers to be your fellow henchman to perpetuate our ridiculous lack of policies, mistreatment, and gossip about truly qualified individuals...with promises of being treated better as a reward to the fellow Henchman-Henchwoman...

Well, the desperate ones. The girls or guys who love power but don´t realize that they are just a puppet henchmen-henchwoman..ahahahah...
and perpetuating nonsense...look at the Monarchy..hahaha... They are ridgid and oft don´t think outside of the BOX..so to speak

Ah...ahahahaha...yes the healthy teachers who don´t drink lots of alcohol are a pain in the ass. They always want to change things, and improve things quickly. Want better living conditions, clean things hahaha They don´t understand INSHALLLLAAA hahahahahaha

It is really great if you can shag a teacher who can bully the other teachers with verbal abuse and by towing the line for you..
Ah yes shagging the teachers...hahahaha...now that IS fun..ahahahaha.
I have this one maths teacher who will do anything for me..ahahaha She even spies on what the other teachers say about the organization for me...ahahahaha... I even touch her breast in front of other people and she accepts it... Really i can´t imagine that she has any family... she is so immoral. But I admit...she is a good henchwoman. hahahahahaha

Oh...do you think I could meet her?

Hahahaha..oh definitely...she loves to think we are important people..i have a few of my friends shagging her too...why not...shall we arrange a dinner at a sushi bar to liquor her up..ahahah..
Oh..i don´t like sushi but if it means meeting her, yes..and I will drive my
BMW that should get her into my car fast enough..ahahahah

Okay...remember to talk about all the important people you know..that is her foreplay..ahahahah...this is so much fun. I even lowered her salary and she cried... I couldn´t stop laughing..ahahaha..

If the Evil Overlord orders you to kill some prisoners and then departs for business elsewhere, leave as quickly as possible; there is about to be a successful rescue attempt.

I have never heard of anything vaguely close to the fictious conversation posted in this thread, but I do know of one occurence that although may seem like fiction, actually DID happen.

ADU ransacked teachers cubicles and desk top computers. Apparently the so called management (read other threads on ADU - a so-called Dr, Owen, Dr. Muthana and Sami Anwar) found out how ADU is portrayed on line and as they were not happy that truths were being well know, they simply ransacked all teachers's cubicles and computers after hours. When no one was there. Shocking? No. This is ADU style. To do dirty work when there is no one around. They do this qutie regularly. But up to date, they hadn't yet ransacked teachers computers nor cubicles (referring to those pigeon holes as "offices" is an insult).

One may say that this ransacking is all in a day's work. Perhaps. However, knowing the degree of paranoia that the management has regarding the secrecy of exams (they even had one senior PhD holder spend time in a locked room photocopying placement tests because they will not even trust their secretaries nor other staff), this is serious.

On the other hand, this latest occurence at ADU should be further warning for anyone who may still consider ADU as a working place - yes, it is a place. A warehouse. But certainly not for working at.

If you're using the universities computers to disparage it online you are being both unethical and reckless.

They are right to be paranoid about the placement tests. When even Western University lecturers will sell exams to students you can hardly trust badly paid Third World admin staff.

I am not sure that their security efforts will work though. In my experience the only way to stop frequently used exams leaking is to have so large a question bank that it wouldn't matter if you put the lot online.

i dont even know where to begin. ADU is the most embarrassing, revolting piece of junk ever to be created. the atmosphere in that so-called organization is so friggin appalling. i really aint got no clue as to which trash can these people crawled out from. they sadly try to convey a sense of professionalism. i spit in the name of professionalism if this is the way that its gonna be done. the three musketeers are more than paraniod. they just shittin in there pants when they sense the presence of someone with a mind of their own. they run around like mutha flippin rats to try to step all over that mind, threaten and intimidate them, then if that dont work then they just slam a fuckin "termination". like any1 with a lil bitta brain would actually wanna stay with them. that place is goin down. n honestly i cant wait to c it fall cuz of the damage they inflicted on people. they think they can walk around playin around with peoples lives like that. well, they can all go to hell...

they all belong to a friggin assylum..no no..they was probably kicked out of the assylum. hoo can tolerate low-lifes like them.....

Posted: Sun May 30, 2004 4:09 am Post subject: Its all been said......

Well, thats it!

ADU is not the place to be. ADU now is using their thin window of opportunity over the summer to deperately recruit faculty for the fall semester. (All the decent organisations have already completed their recruiting).

Well, things did look like they would be getting better at ADU for a while, at least in the Language Institute. They hired a new director to replace the infamous Sami Anwar, and she certainly is a big improvement - good ideas about positive moves forward, etc. But I'm not sure how much power she has to affect any change, as the Iraqi VP seems to have complete control over every corner of the university, which is really having a very negative impact on the whole place. A lot of faculty have been fired (for no apparent reason) or have quit. Many of those who are planning to stay are having trouble with their visas (some have been here for months and are still on tourist visas, which is illegal and they'll have to pay fines or risk jail terms) and with their annual tickets home (in an effort to save money (?) reservations were cancelled and some people couldn't get out at all or when they planned to). This is not the fault of the over-worked and impotent HR staff, but again a direct result of the micromanagement of the VP. I would say that if you have any other options, wait for ADU to mature and for things to become stable before coming.

I think that exposing this farce is of extreme importance. The ADU problem is worse than what have, rightly, been reported by Safron and Justice Seeker. Now that ADU is desperate to recruite more people, they are using all possible lies. I, therefore, think that those of us who have worked at ADU, or those who have any info about it, should contribute to this forum. I will add my part very soon and try to expose the unacademic practices and labour malpractices. ADU, with its HR manager, VP, and Head of English Dept, is a disgrace to academic life.

As promised previously, I have decided to contribute to this forum and write about the crime committed in the name of academia. I hope this will help teachers who have applied to work at ADU and those who are working there to save whatever they can of their dignity and sanity before dive more and more into this unbelievable nightmare.

I want to talk about the discrepancy between academic standards and day to day practices of this “university” and examples of the false promises made to academics when they are in their countries and the unbelievable reality they confront upon arrival.

Faculty at ADU have been threatened when they have raised queries about their contracts, did not want to sign their contracts, or pointed out ways in which the contracts were not in agreement with the offers which they received.

From the outset, all faculty employed in September 2003, had raised objections to the clause in the contract which said that the university can fire any member of staff with no reason and without a notice period being applied. HR manager claims that the contract was totally in line with UAE Labor Law and there are no discrepancies. Most faculty at the university are very unhappy with the Termination of Contract clause in the contract and have signed under sufferance because their family commitments do not allow them to leave the university.

There was no acknowledgement or empathy for the entire academic year from the management of the unsatisfactory working environment provided to faculty. These include a inadequate number of printers and :photocopiers, the lack of office space for staff, the lack of meeting rooms and spaces where faculty could provide extra tuition to students, as well as the lack of basic private ablution facilities for female staff.

At every meeting with management, instead of being given a chance to discuss our teaching experience and feed that into an ongoing evaluation of work, staff were lectured to about classroom management, the use of computers, absentee warnings and harangued to use the CALL lab even when there were no programmes available to use, no internet connection, nor even headphones. At the time that these facilities did not exist in the language lab, an official memo and register with names of instructors, times and dates was sent around to intimidate teachers into using the language lab. Faculty were thus placed in the ignominious position of having to carry out the orders issued from above, while being fully aware that they would not result in teaching students what they were expecting to learn within the institution.

At the time that the new and very professional director. was brought on board in February 2004, no one in administration or management understood that there was no logical reason for language instructors to take students to a language lab to type – which is all they could do at that time. Fortunately the language lab is now much better equipped. This is just an example to highlight that the current management team of the university lacks even the most basic understanding of the needs of the education arena and are unfortunately unwilling to benefit from the highly qualified and experienced expertise that they bring in from other countries.

Meetings with management and the first director of the ELI were actually opportunities for the administration of the university to tell the instructors what to do. There was no dialogue: instead, faculty would be asked to raise their personal problems in a forum with up to 25 other faculty (most of whom were unfamiliar with each other). Clearly, the intention was not to really listen to the opinions of the faculty, but rather to be able to report that a meeting had taken place. How was faculty supposed to discuss their lack of a furniture allowance, the refusal by the university to pay a child’s school fees as had been originally promised, the payment of air tickets to the UAE or return tickets for the family in an open forum with every other member of the ELI being present?

In the first week of the academic year, the director of ELI, Dr. Sami Anwar, completely disappeared and expected the coordinator,to run the institute, which is in actual fact the university itself. Upon raising the issue of a shortage of instructors- there were only 6 at the time, teachers were told to join levels. During this week, istructors were forced to teach 5 hours in the morning and 5 hours in the evening. In order to solve the problem of an inadequate staff complement for the courses advertised for, part-time teachers with no proper interview or review of their qualifications were hired on the spot. During the first and second terms, they worked for more than the officially permitted hours. When instructors complained during this period that ther understanding was that over-time work was optional, they were told that we were expected to be “cooperative”. They only received payment for this overtime after filling in at least 3 or maybe even 4 versions of an overtime form – an exercise that seemed to have been designed to delay or even avoid payment for work done, as each version of the form was more time-consuming to fill in than the previous version. Some faculty both inside and outside the ELI were not informed about the agreement that overtime work was optional and hence were not even paid for their extra work

This is just a fraction of what has been going on.

.

Last edited by Cheguevara on Wed Jul 21, 2004 7:27 am; edited 1 time in total

As promised previously, I have decided to contribute to this forum and write about the crime committed in the name of academia. I hope this will help teachers who have applied to work at ADU and those who are working there to save whatever they can of their dignity and sanity before dive more and more into this unbelievable nightmare.

I want to talk about the discrepancy between academic standards and day to day practices of this “university” and examples of the false promises made to academics when they are in their countries and the unbelievable reality they confront upon arrival.

Faculty at ADU have been threatened when they have raised queries about their contracts, did not want to sign their contracts, or pointed out ways in which the contracts were not in agreement with the offers which they received.

From the outset, all faculty employed in September 2003, had raised objections to the clause in the contract which said that the university can fire any member of staff with no reason and without a notice period being applied. HR manager claims that the contract was totally in line with UAE Labor Law and there are no discrepancies. Most faculty at the university are very unhappy with the Termination of Contract clause in the contract and have signed under sufferance because their family commitments do not allow them to leave the university.

There was no acknowledgement or empathy for the entire academic year from the management of the unsatisfactory working environment provided to faculty. These include a inadequate number of printers and :photocopiers, the lack of office space for staff, the lack of meeting rooms and spaces where faculty could provide extra tuition to students, as well as the lack of basic private ablution facilities for female staff.

At every meeting with management, instead of being given a chance to discuss our teaching experience and feed that into an ongoing evaluation of work, staff were lectured to about classroom management, the use of computers, absentee warnings and harangued to use the CALL lab even when there were no programmes available to use, no internet connection, nor even headphones. At the time that these facilities did not exist in the language lab, an official memo and register with names of instructors, times and dates was sent around to intimidate teachers into using the language lab. Faculty were thus placed in the ignominious position of having to carry out the orders issued from above, while being fully aware that they would not result in teaching students what they were expecting to learn within the institution.

At the time that the new and very professional director. was brought on board in February 2004, no one in administration or management understood that there was no logical reason for language instructors to take students to a language lab to type – which is all they could do at that time. Fortunately the language lab is now much better equipped. This is just an example to highlight that the current management team of the university lacks even the most basic understanding of the needs of the education arena and are unfortunately unwilling to benefit from the highly qualified and experienced expertise that they bring in from other countries.

Meetings with management and the first director of the ELI were actually opportunities for the administration of the university to tell the instructors what to do. There was no dialogue: instead, faculty would be asked to raise their personal problems in a forum with up to 25 other faculty (most of whom were unfamiliar with each other). Clearly, the intention was not to really listen to the opinions of the faculty, but rather to be able to report that a meeting had taken place. How was faculty supposed to discuss their lack of a furniture allowance, the refusal by the university to pay a child’s school fees as had been originally promised, the payment of air tickets to the UAE or return tickets for the family in an open forum with every other member of the ELI being present?

In the first week of the academic year, the director of ELI, Dr. Sami Anwar, completely disappeared and expected the coordinator,to run the institute, which is in actual fact the university itself. Upon raising the issue of a shortage of instructors- there were only 6 at the time, teachers were told to join levels. During this week, istructors were forced to teach 5 hours in the morning and 5 hours in the evening. In order to solve the problem of an inadequate staff complement for the courses advertised for, part-time teachers with no proper interview or review of their qualifications were hired on the spot. During the first and second terms, they worked for more than the officially permitted hours. When instructors complained during this period that ther understanding was that over-time work was optional, they were told that we were expected to be “cooperative”. They only received payment for this overtime after filling in at least 3 or maybe even 4 versions of an overtime form – an exercise that seemed to have been designed to delay or even avoid payment for work done, as each version of the form was more time-consuming to fill in than the previous version. Some faculty both inside and outside the ELI were not informed about the agreement that overtime work was optional and hence were not even paid for their extra work